On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 2:41 PM, Carrol Cox <[email protected]> wrote: > What's your comment on all this? > I ask because it contradicts almost everything you've written in the past > several months. > Carrol >
Carroll, Obviously I think that this is a really awful development. I am more or less in complete agreement with Tressie, whose blog I linked to. US servicemen are already extensively preyed upon by hustlers working for for-profit "colleges" (who depend on the tuition income from them which because of some silly loophole does not count towards the 90% cap for financial aid from the Federal government that the for-profits are subject to). This is likely to make it much worse. Also, this gives some undeserved legitimacy to the worthless "credentials" peddled by Coursera. No doubt, the next move will be Coursera using US servicemen as pawns to pressure regular colleges to accept their credentials for transfer credit. It is a Trojan horse. Why would you think this contradicts anything I have said before? I have never been a fan of for-profit "colleges" and MOOC vendors like Coursera and I think I have frequently said so on PEN-L.. -raghu. > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of raghu > Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2014 12:13 PM > To: Progressive Economics > Subject: [Pen-l] From the dept of "oh no, please tell me they didn't.." > > > http://tressiemc.com/2014/11/10/ask-not-what-your-country-can-do-for-you-but-what-coursera-can-do-for-your-country-part-1/ > > --------------------snip > Coursera is, yet again, following in the footsteps of for-profit colleges > (not a huge surprise given the connections < > https://twitter.com/audreywatters/status/531874740332294144> ). > > With this partnership, Coursera credentials gain the legitimacy of the > Veteran’s Administration. Note the press release’s statement: “The VA will > endorse Coursera to 21 million US Veterans through their Veteran Employment > Center.” > > Endorsements are not a small matter when you’re trying to convince people > that your piece of paper is valuable. We went so far as to put God on the > dollar to make paper mean something. > > The VA also provides a captive audience/market. > > Veterans rely greatly on the formal and informal mechanisms of the VA, not > least of all because they’re kind of busy and the VA owes them benefits. If > the VA says these things are real and signals that through its formal > employment center mechanisms, that has some meaning. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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